Silk Road Teas achieves 2x industry conversion rate with BigCommerce

How one B2B company uncovered higher margins, happier customers and a (much) bigger bottom line

14%

21%

4.5%

increase in AOV

increase in site traffic

conversion rate

The Silk Road Teas success story

Silk Road Teas was the very first company to source single-origin, rare and artisan teas from China for the U.S. market. It was accomplished by individuals, in the beginning one person traveling alone and, in time, two Silk Road Teas employees. This small team traveled province to province in China in search of specialty factories and artisanal teas scarcely known to the international market.

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The Silk Road Teas success story

Silk Road Teas was the very first company to source single-origin, rare and artisan teas from China for the U.S. market. It was accomplished by individuals, in the beginning one person traveling alone and, in time, two Silk Road Teas employees. This small team traveled province to province in China in search of specialty factories and artisanal teas scarcely known to the international market.

Our B2C site now has a steady 4.5% conversion rate, and BigCommerce’s out-of-the-box Abandoned Cart Saver has 17% of those who abandon cart coming back to buy.
Ned Heagerty, Founder of Silk Road Teas.

2x industry average growth with out-of-the-box features

As told to BigCommerce by Ned Heagerty, Founder of Silk Road Teas.

Silk Road Teas started simply enough: hand carried teas found in China back to the U.S. Since then, we’ve become a wholesale importer and sell to Whole Foods, Dean and Deluca and so many others.

But our fastest growing channels are our B2C channels, including our BigCommerce storefront. We have seen substantial growth in revenue over the last two years and traffic to our site continues to grow significantly.

Our B2C site now has a steady 4.5% conversion rate, and BigCommerce’s out-of-the-box Abandoned Cart Saver has 17% of those who abandon cart coming back to buy.

Developer and marketer friendly for customization and campaign flexibility

As told to BigCommerce by Ned Heagerty, Founder of Silk Road Teas.

BigCommerce was recommended to us by both our developer and our marketer. We needed greater flexibility in marketing our product and differentiating ourselves online. BigCommerce’s modular design was a big selling feature, as was the complex built-in functionality. For anything not already built-in, one-click apps were easily available.

It was this modular, “come as you are,” approach that really attracted us to BigCommerce.

Our best sales channel is the internet because our customer is looking for information. Both our category pages and our individual product pages allow for a detailed level of information sharing that helps us to rank highly in search and drive organic traffic.
Ned Heagerty, Founder of Silk Road Teas.

SEO and loyalty combine for 166% revenue growth

166%

309%

17,000+

YoY revenue growth

customer growth

orders processed

Flexible content pages to serve both customers and SEO

As told to BigCommerce by Ned Heagerty, Founder of Silk Road Teas.

Our rare and artisan specialty teas are typically grown on small farms, are handmade and not widely found in the U.S. marketplace. Because of that, there is a strong interest in the "story" behind a tea. Our customers want to know what the varietal is, where it comes from, it’s taste profile and other facts about the farm.

With us needing to provide that kind of content, it was essential BigCommerce pages were easily optimized for search engines and that product pages could be customized for our unique audience. Our best sales channel is the internet because our customer is looking for information. Both our category pages and our individual product pages allow for a detailed level of information sharing that helps us to rank highly in search and drive organic traffic.

Building loyalty for a niche, fanatic base

As told to BigCommerce by Ned Heagerty, Founder of Silk Road Teas.

We use SLoyalty and our customers seem to really appreciate it. We have seen a significant impact in building recurring sales and average order value through our loyalty accounts and rewards redeemed.

Fan Builder also has done quite well with assisting us in building our list. Our number of new sign ups has become a key metric in measuring the success of our web segment, and Fan Builder makes it easy to track and optimize to hit our goals.

Customers first

As told to BigCommerce by Ned Heagerty, Founder of Silk Road Teas.

My best advice for other retailers is that your story is important to customers. Every business and every product represents an idea. There is a reason it came into existence. Consumers are increasingly interested in that aspect, so tell your story!

Well stated product information is critical as well. At the beginning of each day, good service will be key to building repeat business. Once the order is in, make sure it is handled and shipped promptly at the best possible price.

BigCommerce gives us the backend flexibility to build a customer-centric brand without a single barrier to our future growth. It is a key aspect to our success.

BigCommerce gives us the backend flexibility to build a customer-centric brand without a single barrier to our future growth.
Ned Heagerty, Founder of Silk Road Teas